Dresden Files RPG

What's Out There

Here’s a quick and dirty breakdown of the mortals, “semi-mortals,” and monsters running around out in the Dresdenverse. Keep your eyes peeled, and you might recognize them.

Mortals

First, you have true mundane mortals. They are unaware of the supernatural goings-on all around them.

Then you have the clued-in, who have experienced the weirdness up-close and personal, and may know a bit about the various people and critters involved in occult stuff. Clued-in groups include some people of faith, law enforcement officers who specialize in “black cat investigations,” researchers who come across anomalous (read: supernatural) evidence, and even some members of organized crime.

Next are the minor talents. These are folks who have a (usually limited) supernatural talent of their own. Maybe they can cast a spell or two, know some effective rituals, speak to the dead, see the future, that sort of thing.

Sorcerers are more powerful magic-workers, often tapping the power of cults surrounding them to empower spells or rituals or to summon demons. Sorcerers usually don’t have the training, power, knowledge, or ethics of White Council wizards. White Council members have the tools and the talent, but they must abide by certain Laws of Magic. Those who break the Laws are known as warlocks.

Lastly, there are necromancers, who use the power of death to do magic, like raising ghosts and zombies and all other sorts of creepy business. (Playing with death magic is a big no-no to the White Council, by the way.)

“Semi-Mortals”

“Semi-mortals” are people who have a foot in the mortal world and a foot in the supernatural world. They retain some aspects of choice, balanced against their nature.

These include some types of werewolf, scions of mortal-monster matings (such as changelings, which are part-human and part-faerie), and the poor folks who have been half-turned— or infected —by a vampire. (A large percentage of the membership of the Fellowship of St. Giles is composed of people infected and turned halfway into a Red Court vampire.)

Monsters

The world is full of monsters. There are other types of werewolves than those mentioned above (four or five in total), and at least four types of vampire (White Court, Red Court, Black Court, and Jade Court), all with different powers, hungers, and weaknesses. Then there are ghouls, the hard-to-dispatch killer thugs of the supernatural set.

Add to this the inhabitants of the Nevernever who can by various means cross from there into the mortal realm; these include a multitude of faerie species, spirits, ghosts, and demons.

A couple dragons and gods are still kicking around, but we don’t know much about them other than they usually don’t seem to get involved in stuff and are extremely powerful.

The Order of the Blackened Denarius is composed of Fallen angels bound to thirty silver coins, permitting them to possess mortal hosts; they are extremely bad news. Apparently, angels support the people of faith who wage war against the Denarians.

Then there are Outsiders and Old Ones. They want to consume reality. We don’t have much information on them because knowing anything about them is against the White Council’s Laws of Magic.